PORTLAND, Ore. —
Dozens of Radio Cab cars lined the streets near Southeast Washington Street and Water Avenue on Saturday afternoon as drivers paid tribute to a beloved member of their community.
Reese Lawhon, 43, was found dead behind the wheel of his Radio Cab car the evening of April 8, Easter Sunday.
Moses Lopez, 30, was arrested that same night and has since pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.
But Saturday’s gathering was much less about the end of a life, and more about a life well lived.
“Reese was an amazing artist and musician. He moved up to Portland to do that,” said Ellen Jacobs, a family friend who knew Lawhon in his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. Jacobs now lives in Bend, but drove to Portland for the memorial.
“He might have done his own thing and been on his own path, but for his friends and family he’d always have their back no matter what,” she said.
A talented painter and musician, Lawhon moved to the Pacific Northwest to attend the University of Oregon where he obtained a fine arts degree before moving to Portland.
In 2005 he joined the indie rock band Aan, singing and playing bass, and played on stages across the country, including at the Texas music festival SXSW and stints touring with the band Smashing Pumpkins.
Outside of his creative pursuits, Lawhon was known as a fast friend and kind soul, said Darin Campbell, director of marketing for Radio Cab.
“He was an incredible individual. He drove for us for over a decade and never came across someone he didn’t like and who didn’t like him,” Campbell said. “In over 10 years he never had a single complaint with us, and the best of the best get complaints, so that says something.”
Campbell said Lawhon’s death has left a void at Radio Cab that won’t be easily filled.
“You know every driver is kind of a brick to our makeup, our wall of success, and when you pull a brick out, especially one that is as important as Reese was, it weakens that wall a little bit,” Campbell said. “We’ll patch it up, we’ll put it back together, but it’s a loss. It’s definitely a loss for us.”
Campbell said Lawhon’s killing, which appears to have been a random attack with no warning, has left other drivers searching for answers.
“There’s a lot of anger, a lot of just not able to understand why this happened,” he said. “There’s no putting the pieces together to figure this one out. There just isn’t.”
There will be discussions about ways to increase driver safety, said Campbell, who chairs an advisory committee on taxis and other car-for-hire services with the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Some have previously called protective barriers between drivers and passengers, while others have said they could send the wrong message about safety in Portland or could impede drivers from providing good customer service.
But Campbell said it was time to revisit the issue, which he said was on the agenda for the next committee meeting.
But those conversations will take place in the days and weeks ahead, Campbell said. On Saturday, Portland cab drivers were focused on one thing: paying tribute to one of their own the best way they knew how.
“This is an opportunity for, not just the Radio Cab family but the taxi family of Portland to come together and recognize Reese in the only way they know how and that’s to come together and drive,” Campbell said.
After a brief reading, the dozens of cabs lining the streets of Southeast Portland formed a procession, crossing the Hawthorne Bridge into the heart of downtown, flashing their hazard lights as they drove the streets of a city Lawhon loved to explore.